I had a similar experience a couple years ago aboard a Celebrity cruise ship. I saw a casino manager and was asking if it was possible to buy a roulette chip as a souvenir. I expected him to say none can take roulettes but I always ask just in case. To my surprise he said " The chips on the tables are pretty worn and dirty, I'll get you some nice ones". So he had his guy get a couple racks of chips out of the vault and we picked out some good ones. I was in shock.